Ties Grow Thinner between Apple and Samsung… Total breakup to come?

Ever since Apple took Samsung to court and snatched up over $1 billion, you had to assume the relationship between the two companies could only go downhill… In news that seemingly confirms that idea, it’s being said that Apple will rely less heavily on Samsung for future chip production.

For a long time, Apple was Samsung’s biggest parts client, according to a new report coming straight from the Korea Times. But now that Apple has apparently drawn out a plan in which Samsung merely manufactures the A6 processors that live inside the iPhone 5, they’ve essentially become a third-tier client (one that only provides manufacturing while chip design and architecture were created elsewhere)… That change in the relationship makes a lot of sense when you recall how Apple recently hired Jim Mergard—former chip design for, you guessed it, Samsung. With all the talent they need on the inside, why feed the enemy that occasionally rips off your best ideas?

Samsung might not even be manufacturing any chips for future Apple devices if Apple has its way. Rumor has it that Apple is working with Taiwan Semiconductor for manufacturing quad core, 20-nanometer chips for use in future Apple devices. That would further shift business away from Samsung. In a few years, Apple devices might not carry any Samsung components at all. And that would be bad news for Samsung.

So, with Apple taking their billions of dollars in chip business away from Samsung (for the most part), the wedge between the two companies conceivably just drove deeper… With the business relationship now being coined as “one dimensional,” could we be looking at a future in which the two companies have nothing to do with each other, other than the odd marquee lawsuit?

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Devin Wieland

 

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